Improvement in car-couplings



a. u. sllELuAm Gar-Couplings.

N0.-145,4-08. I Patentedlan.l3,l874.` w

Witnesses:

i i r l UNITED STATES PATENT. OEEIcEo GEORGE D. SPIELMAN, OF LANCASTER,OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT |N CAR-COUPLINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 146,408, dia-tadJanuary 13, 1874; application filed August 1G, 1873. l

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE DANIEL SPIEL- MAN, of Lancaster, in thecounty of Fairfield and State of Ohio, have invented a new and Improved"Car-Coupling, of which the following is a specification:

My invention consists of a horizontal bar, arranged transversely to thecar in a horizontal slot in the end of the draw-head, and pivoted at itsmiddle to the draw-head, and having a hook on one end to engage the endof a similar bar on the draw-head of the other car to be coupled, havinga similar hook,iwhich )ins so that cars with 1n im roved cou )ling 7 bcan also be coupled to cars having the ordinary couplings.

Figure l is a horizontal section of the drawbars, and a plan of thecoupling bars and hooks, according to my improvement, the section beingtaken on the line x x of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. 1.Fig. 3 is an end elevation of one of the draw-heads; and Fig. 4 is aperspective view of one of the coupling bars and hooks.

A represents the draw-heads; B, the horizontal slots inthe ends; C, thecoupling-bars;

D," the hooks; E, the pivots of the said bars; F, the pins for theordinary links; G, the chains for lifting the coupling-bars; I,ascending and descending walls of the slots B, to

allow the draw-bars to swing vertically to engage and disengage them bythe hooks 5 and J, recesses to admit the ordinary links to be coupled bypins F. y

It will he seen that the hook of one bar encounters the end of the otherbar not provided with a hook, and rises up on it by the curved end a.,while, at the same time, the said end swings down in consequence of thehook at the other end rising on the end of the other bar. VThe inclinesI, or rather the widened portions of the slots at the inclines, allowthe bars to swing in this manner.

The bars C are made wide and strong inthe middle, where they arepivoted, and extend into the slots far enough to receive the pivots E,behind the ordinary coupling-pins F, and

they are slotted, at F F', suiiiciently for -both of said pivots toallow them to swing upward and down, as needed forengaging and disen=gaging with each other.

The coupling is very strong and durable,

and will couple self-actingly, as well on curves as on straight lines,and will uncouple, in case the cars run off or shift, very muchrelatively to each other.

I propose to employ a lever to pull up the chain for uncoupling thecars, the lever being pivoted to the cars so that a person standing onthe ground can uncouple the cars by pull-

